Chapter 44
Wilder
Shadows weave so thick they form a wall, keeping me out. I pound against the edges, reaching for the thread that connects me to Elorie, but she’s closed it off.
The plan was to take them out in one brutal blow that drained me down to nothing if needed. Not for her to sacrifice herself.
Swinging the sword, the blade shreds at the shadow, but by the time I take another swing, it’s already reformed. There’s no breaking through.
“What is that?” Lochlan grabs my shoulder, pulling me away. “We need to get back.”
It takes his entire strength to pull me from the shadows. Callum grabs my other arm, his teeth grinding as he does, and I know it’s only for Elorie that he cares at all.
They shove me behind a pillar as the scream reaches a nearly unbearable peak. It’s so high-pitched, so shrill, it brings us all to our knees. Until the shadows vaporize in a burst of light so strong it forces my eyes closed.
For a moment, I’m back in the prison with a blade piercing my heart. Darkness is everywhere. It’s everything.
Except her.
Elorie is light.
The violent burst fades, and I climb to my feet, shoving past Lochlan to see that the wall has disappeared, and the tear in the city has healed. Elorie kneels where I last saw her, hovering over Greer. But when her hands move, there’s no more blood. Greer’s wound is sealed.
Greer blinks, sitting, while Elorie looks at her hands. Then her gaze meets mine.
Her eyes are silver stars, almost as bright as her snowy-white hair. The blue at the ends is nearly gone, only as her breathing deepens does it start to reappear.
“Wilder.” Her mouth barely moves, like she thinks she’s saying it in her head, but she’s not.
She tries to stand and almost stumbles, so I catch her, wrapping her in my arms.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, gripping my chest.
My hands dig into her sides. Part of her is still at a distance as her magic collapses back in on itself.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.” I rest my forehead against hers, catching my breath, feeling her to reassure myself she’s real. Confirming she’s still here. “Gods, you should have told me. You could have died, Elorie.”
Her magic isn’t trained.
Her heart isn’t all Fae.
She could tear apart so easily. She just doesn’t realize it.
I’m holding on but losing myself. Her eyes drink me in, and I don’t care that Lochlan’s army is in shambles or this city is broken at the edges. I’ve got her in my hands.
Reaching up, I press my palm to the air beside us until it becomes the door to my room at the manor. Pushing it open, I haul her inside, and her silver eyes grow wide as she looks around.
“How did you do that?” Her eyes are still taking it all in when they meet mine again.
They’re beautiful. Like the sparkling freckles on her cheek. I brush my thumb over them and grin because she’s glowing. “There’s a lot you still have to learn, Starfire.”
I’d like to think I’ll be the one to show her, but even if she’s in my arms now, we’re running out of time.
Instead of focusing on that, I press my lips to hers and cling to what ties us together instead of what tears us apart.
“You drive me gods damned crazy.” I spin until her back hits the wall.
The prettiest gasp meets my lips, and I drink it down. I soak her in. I lift her hips, and she winds her legs around my waist.
We’re melting together.
We’re falling apart.
She tips her head back, looking up at me with her hooded gaze. “I like driving you crazy.”
“I know you do, Starfire.”
She smiles as I set her on her feet. Her fingers work my pants, then her small hand shoves down the front, wrapping my length.
“Elorie.” I brace myself against the wall behind her head when my knees buckle. “Tell me you actually want this because if you touch me like that, I’m not going to be able to hold myself back.”
My fingers thread through her hair, gripping tight as I tip her head back and force her to look up at me.
“I want this.” Three of the most beautiful words.
I lean in and kiss her throat. “Magic can be an aphrodisiac. All that power thrumming in your veins messes with your head. You’re still coming down from tapping into it.”
“I want you, Wilder,” she says.
But that’s only because there’s still so much she doesn’t know.
I swallow that down, meeting her gaze. “You scared me today.”
“I know.” She bites her lip, tightening her grip on my cock. “I’m sorry.”
“How sorry?” I pull her lip out from between her teeth and drag my thumb over her tongue. “Show me.”
Elorie wets her lips, smirking as she drops to her knees and pulls out my cock.
My grip tightens on her hair as she presses a kiss to my shaft. And when she opens her mouth and wraps her perfect lips around my length, I’m sent higher than any rush of magic in my veins. Her tongue is wet and warm. I’m shaking from my fingers to my toes.
Elorie’s silver eyes look up at me, and I lose all sense of time and space. It’s a miracle I found the strength to get her out of the city before claiming her. Resisting her was easier when I’d drawn that line. Like the one written in runes in the prison. But just like then, she steps over it.
She blurs my intentions, and there’s no going back. There’s no saving either of us. I’ll see the entire constellation destroyed before I let go of her. She might hate me for wanting to burn her realm to ash, but she fails to understand that there are no limits when it comes to her.
Tugging Elorie’s hair, I pop her lips off my cock, and the pretty little O she makes with her mouth almost undoes me.
Her eyebrows pinch, and those sparkling freckles on her cheek dull the slightest bit. “Sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“Was it not—” She bites her lip, and a hundred thoughts scurry around in her head. The same doubts she’s been running circles around since the first time she saw me look at my sister and didn’t know who she was to me.
I lean down and pick her up off the floor, setting her on her feet. Gripping her chin, I force her face up to me. With the magic blooming inside her, sometimes I forget just how small she is since she’s half-human.
I forget just how much she doubts herself when she has no reason to.
“There is nothing you could do to me that you would need to be sorry for. Absolutely nothing. And regarding this…” I slowly undo the laces on her shirt, slipping it overhead.
“It’s been over a century since I’ve had anyone’s touch.
I’d wait that long and thousands of years more if it meant you would be at the end of it. ”
Lifting her hand, I kiss her fingertips and press her palm to my chest.
“You don’t know what you do to me, Elorie Vale. There is no one, human or Fae, who could ever make me feel like you do when you touch me.”
Her fingertips glow. Small weaves of light twine up my shoulder and into my hair.
“Your magic seems to agree, Starfire.”
“You’re insufferable.” She scowls.
“Is that so?” I pick her up and turn, pressing her back down on the bed so fast she loses her breath, and her eyes sparkle.
“Wilder.”
“Mm-hmm.” I peel off her pants and shrug off the rest of my clothes. “I like my name on your beautiful lips.”
Kneeling between her legs, I wrap her thighs at my hips and press against her core.
I’ve barely sunk in when my vision spots, and I’m on the verge of blacking out.
Watching Elorie take me is like coming home.
Her snow-white hair splays over my pillow.
A halo of blue dances at the tips. Her chest arches as I drive deep, and her lashes flutter.
“You’re stunning.” I lean over her, driving until our hips meet. My hand cups her face as I thrust forward again. “I can’t get enough of you.”
Her body.
Her determination.
Her heart.
It’s an addiction beyond the flesh. Stronger than any hit of haelmarrow. She courses through my veins and sets my skin on fire.
My fingers drag up her ribs, leaving a trail of aether glistening on her skin. I tease her nipples, cupping her perfect breasts.
“You feel so good.” She moans, throwing her head back as I drive into her. “I can’t breathe; you feel so good.”
My arm winds around her lower back, and I pull her up to me so she is sitting, straddling my thighs. Her bare chest presses mine, and she rocks, chasing what she needs.
Forehead to forehead.
Mouth to mouth.
I tip her chin up and kiss her while she wraps me in her arms. She feels so good. I think I might be back in that obsidian prison, being tempted with the idea of her—like her voice in my head. So close and yet so far.
My arms encircle her waist, hugging her as tight as I can. But I don’t open my eyes in case this isn’t real. In case my demons are messing with my head again. Dangling her in front of me just to pull her away.
“Wilder?” Her hands press the sides of my cheeks; her thumb traces the edge of my scar. “Look at me.”
My eyes open, and she’s all I see. All I feel. All I need.
“I’m here.” She whispers again and again, “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.”
I don’t know if she realizes what darkness she pulled me out of. She was an illusion on the other side of the runes. But then she stepped over them, and centuries of feeling lost—vanished. She didn’t just bring me back to life; she set me free.
“I’m here.”
“I know.” I drag my hands up her bare back and into her hair. “I know, I know, I know.”
If I say it enough—hold her close enough—maybe it will sink in.
I’m desperate to kiss her, but she holds my mouth at hers and forces me to look into her eyes while she rocks herself over me. She keeps me present while she rides me, and I’m so close that I’m hanging on by this thread.
She’s with me, barely hanging on herself. Her fingers curl and her cheeks flush.
“Let me see you, Elorie,” I whisper against her lips. “Let me see how I make you feel.”
I want to watch her burn.
She reaches the peak, and her movements quicken. Her body hugs me, and she slicks over my cock. The freckles on her cheek ignite, and her eyes are the center of the hottest fire. The blue core that swelters when it incinerates everything.
“That’s it, Starfire.” I hold her while she chases her release.
Her eyes fill with pleasure and fear. Her desire tangling with her obligations. Which is why, even as it rips me open, I say what she needs to hear in this moment.
“I will always choose you, Elorie. Always. You don’t have to choose me. But I will always choose you.”
She has no idea just how far I’ll go to keep that promise.